1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to textile sleeves for protecting elongate members, and more particularly to braided textile sleeves and to their method of construction.
2. Related Art
In applications requiring protection against abrasion and impact forces to elongate members, such as wire harnesses or tubular members, it is known to surround the elongate member with a multi-faced woven or knitted textile sleeve. For example, if woven, the fill yarn can be provided as a first yarn type to form an inner face of the sleeve, while the warp yarn can be provided as a second type of yarn, different from the first type of yarn, to form an outer face of the sleeve. As such, the first and second yarns can be selected from the type of material best suited to provide the protection desired. Likewise, if knitted, different types of yarn can be knitted together to form respective inner and outer faces having different properties, e.g. dampening, abrasion resistance. Although woven and knitted sleeves can be useful for the their intended use, in some applications, they may prove less than optimal, including, from a functional standpoint, for example, if woven, the sleeves may be too stiff, radially inflexible or radially inelastic, and if knitted, the sleeves may be too radially elastic and bulky. Further, from a manufacturing standpoint, both woven and knit sleeves are generally costly.